sold my house and bought new place with common law

[dino68]

Hi;
I built a new home for myself and as a single Mom was very proud of my accomplishment. Then I met a guy and because I didn't have a garage, we decided to move. I sold my house and then we bought another. I paid for all the lawyer fees to sell and buy, the real estate fees for both, and put a down payment of $45,000 on the new place and bought a new fridge and stove. Now after 10 years I can no longer put up with the alcohol abuse etc. By the way, never got married and have never pooled our money together. We have a house account and that pays the bills and food. Anything that we did for the house or bought was 50/50 split. My ex says he can't buy me out. I feel that I am at least entitled to my $45,000 down payment back before splitting the proceeds of the sale 50/50! My proceeds before cost from the sale of my house was $53,986.33. Then I paid $$6403.82 for lawyer and real estate fees leaving me with a NET PROCEED of $47,582.51. Our present situation is: I had an appraisal done on the house and it is $258,500.00. We owe $48,500.

[dino68]

He wants to buy me out and I gave him a price of $120,000. That is also me saying that I am not taking any of the "stuff" out of the house either. I just want out and
I feel this is very fair but he says $120,000 is unrealistic!

[standing on the sidelines]

what does he think is a realistic offer??

[Berner_Faith]

So let me get this right... if you sell the house there would be no profit... you would actually owe $48,500? If that is the case, there should be no buy out, because there is no equity in the home. You should be on the hook for $24,250 of the debt owing, so if he wants to keep the house, you are better off walking away and letting him keep the $48,500 in debt... or you sell the house and you both owe $24,250 plus realtor fees.

Am I reading that right?

[dino68]

Sorry...We owe $48,500 on our mortgage. The house we bought together. We bought the house for $178,500.00 but our mortgage started at $133,500 because of MY down payment. The appraisal is the current value of this house

[standing on the sidelines]

was the money for the downpayment taken from an account that was in just your name? What I mean is there a paper trail that shows the money was your own money to begin with?

he is trying to treat the home as maritial property but you were not married so its a little different, its more like a partnership and an unequal one at that.

[firhill]

Notwithstanding the down payment and lawyer's fees you covered when buying..

If house was ordered sold. you would split the $15500 (6%) RE fees plus the $6500 (est) lawyers fees. Not sure if there would be any capital gains or other taxes due.

$258,500 minus $48,500 (mtge balance) minus $22,000 (above costs) would leave $188, 000 to be split 50/50. That leaves 94,000 which is what either party should pay to buy the other out.

If you want credit for the $45k DP you covered, then you'd want ($94k + $22.5k) $116,500 out of the deal. If you also want the cost of the lawyer's fees to sell your original home, add another $3,200.

So, $119,700

[standing on the sidelines]

why only credit for half of the downpayment?

[firhill]

why only credit for half of the downpayment?

I applied it to half the equity (minus costs). I would have used full DP and old lawyers fees if I was working with the full amount of equity.

Will end up at same total, either way.

[hadenough]

Sounds to me like another hard lesson learned. My DP didn't make any difference. I think the OP is going to have to take a hit. Firhill outlined a good analysis - but I think this could get messy.

[involveddad75]

Another question but a different topic.
My ex and I are done in court with respect to custody and access.
We were common law, the house I bought before I met her, all fees for the house were paid for out of an account I only had access to, this includes morgages, taxes, insurance. The only thing we shared was hydro and gas. which came out of a joint account.
Can she come after me for half the house?
What caselaw protects me?

[dino68]

All of the money paid by me is in the our Lawyers report (deed etc.) he did up regarding the selling and buying of the houses. Shows all money's being paid out of the sale of my house.

[dino68]

yes and he doesn't want to lose me so he is being difficult. He says that i am the one that wants to end our relationship so why should he have to lose twice?

[dinkyface]

Did you also split the mortgage payments 50-50?

Firhill's math looks about right to me i.e. your net proceeds of sale (after RE/legal fees) should be split so that you get 45K more than him.

[OrleansLawyer]

Hire a lawyer.

Prima facie, the proceeds of joint property are split 50-50. If you want to claw back some of your downpayment then the investment in a lawyer may be prudent.